The Diary of A Young Girl

The diary as Anne Frank wrote it. At last, in a new translation, this definitive edition contains entries about Anne's burgeoning sexuality and confrontations with her mother that were cut from previous editions. Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been a beloved and deeply admired monument to the indestructible nature of the human spirit, read by millions of people and translated into more than fifty-five languages. Doubleday, which published the first English translation of the diary in 1952, now offers a new translation that captures Anne's youthful spirit and restores the original material omitted by Anne's father, Otto -- approximately thirty percent of the diary. The elder Frank excised details about Anne's emerging sexuality, and about the often-stormy relations between Anne and her mother. Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation forces, hid in the back of an Amsterdam office building for two years. This is Anne's record of that time. She was thirteen when the family went into the "Secret Annex," and in these pages, she grows to be a young woman and proves to be an insightful observer of human nature as well. A timeless story discovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For young readers and adults, it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horrors the modern world had seen -- and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.

Opinion

From the critics

Community Activity

Comment

The level of insight and intelligence evident in Anne's writing blew me away. From mundane daily rituals, to accounts of key events, to explorations of self and personal development made this an all-round captivating reading experience. Knowing the tragic outcome, her speculations about the future became a poignant reminder of the tragedies of her time.

Ya gotta hand it to this teen girl who was writing about her life with such clarity and eloquence when her life was hanging by a thread.

From the pure standpoint of the reader with all emotions set aside, the fact that the diary includes a love interest is a blessing. But even without it, it's a wonderful and at times intense read. Knowing what happens to all of them after the diary ends packs the punch that would've been included had this been a work of fiction, but it's not.

A great book. A bit strange to read, knowing the outcome, while Anne doesn't. At times, the book reads like a fictional diary where the author knows where she's going with the story, knows the ending, and is putting in poignant little moments or comments to pull at the reader's heart strings, but of course Anne didn't know the ending when she was writing her diary, and that makes it even more poignant. Reading the last few months of the diary was the hardest because she kept mentioning things she was going to do in October of that year or what she wanted to do after she finished school, after the end of the war, and all I could think was "No, your not going to get to do those things" because the Nazis are coming in a few weeks and you'll die in a concentration camp a few months after that. It was amazing how, with the thought of concentration camps and other horrors on her mind she could still write some really trivial stuff about boys that she was soooo in love with, and the arguments that her fellow companions were having about food and use of the toilet among other things.

I tried to read this when I was younger, and can even remember writing entries in my diary addressed to Kitty. I believe; however, that I was too young to appreciate this book for what it is. Re-reading this as an adult made me truly appreciate this story for what it is. It is a story of a girl growing up, dealing with the typical struggles all teenaged girls face, even while in hiding. I recommend that if you have read this in your younger years, you re-visit it again.

Age Suitability

Summary

For her 13th birthday Anne Frank received a diary she dubbed Kitty. Shortly after her birthday with the fear that her older sister, Margo may be taken by the Nazis the Franks disappear into the night and go into hiding. It is through Kitty that Anne records her thoughts and daily life living behind a bookcase in the secret annex.